Prof. Francesco Porpiglia is the Director of the Department of Urology at Candiolo Institute – IRCCS since September 1, 2025.
Full Professor of Urology at the Department of Oncology, University of Turin, developed most of his clinical and academic career at the San Luigi Gonzaga Hospital in Orbassano, where he began his practice in 1989 as Level I Medical Executive. He was appointed Associate Professor in 2005 and then Full Professor in 2015.
From 2011 until July 2025, he directed the University Directed Complex Unit of Urology at St. Louis Hospital, transforming it into an international reference center for minimally invasive surgery. Under his leadership, the department has won major awards, including European Training Center of Robotic Surgery by the European Society of Urological Robotic Surgery, and accreditation as a Reference Center for laparoscopic training.
His clinical and research activities have always focused on uro-oncology and minimally invasive surgery, both laparoscopic and robotic. His main areas of study are in prostate and kidney cancer, with a focus on integrating digital technologies into surgical practice. These include the use of three-dimensional virtual reconstructions for preoperative planning and the adoption of artificial intelligence-based systems for intraoperative support.
During his career he has performed thousands of minimally invasive surgeries, including more than 1,500 for renal tumors and more than 5,000 for prostatic neoplasms, ranking him among the leading European experts in the field.
His scholarly activity includes more than 690 publications in international peer-reviewed journals, as well as authorship of three textbooks for medical students, Residents and Urology Specialists.
He is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Minerva Urology and Nephrology, Italy’s leading scientific journal in the field. He regularly organizes internationally important congresses dedicated to technological innovation in uro-oncologic surgery, as well as advanced training courses and Masterclasses for national and international scientific societies, actively contributing to the dissemination of the most advanced techniques in urology.
In view of his profile, surgical, academic and scientific he has been appointed as a member of prestigious international associations, such as the Association of Academic European Urologists and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.
In addition, he has received prominent international awards, including the Henk Van Der Poel Award – Prize for Robot Urology Surgical Science, awarded in Bordeaux in September 2024, the Pin of the Golden Robot Society, awarded in New York in December 2024, and the award for the Best Paper in Robotic Surgery published in European Urology in 2023.